Summary

The investigation of Baliuliai barrows

Laurynas Kurila, Vida Kliaugaitė

The paper presents the results of archaeological excavations in Baliuliai barrow cemetery (Švenčionys District) in 1999–2000. New interpretations of the results are proposed in the context of East Lithuanian barrow culture with the background of cultural, social, and political processes of the late 4th–early 6th century. A demographic structure of the community that left the barrows is discussed. The Baliuliai barrow cemetery is a unique Migration Period cemetery as it bears traces of untypical burial customs, and some discovered grave goods relate it to Central and South Europe. The graves found in the cemetery reflect the changes in ideology and social organisation of that time – spread of cremation custom, and changes in social roles of males and females.